


Storing Up

by CALira



Series: Proper Send Off [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Angst, Couple, Foreplay, Love, M/M, Man/man, boy/boy, interpersonal relations, sex adjacent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-15
Updated: 2015-08-15
Packaged: 2018-04-14 20:31:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4579017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CALira/pseuds/CALira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aaron & Eric sitting in a tree... and maybe a whole lot more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Storing Up

Aaron stood facing the bathroom mirror passing a plain sensible toothbrush idly over his perfect teeth. Teeth that were already clean and polished sparkling white more than a few brushstrokes ago. The onset of a vague awareness that his gums were stinging snapped him out of his ablutionary trance.

“Ah, Hell.” He leaned closer to his image in the mirror and opened his mouth wide. Pulling flesh aside with a sepia toned finger, he examined the interior surfaces of his mouth. Satisfied that everything was still there and where it belonged, he righted himself and thoroughly rinsed out his mouth. 

Clicking off the lights on his way to the bedroom, he realized just how much he was looking forward to settling in for the night next to his boyfriend, Eric. After all these years, Aaron was elated that he still felt giddy and excited when sleep wasn't his primary agenda in their bedroom. 

His full lips were midway through curling into a smile when he flinched and grabbed his jaw. The kind faced brunette rubbed the skin covering his mildly abraded gums and muttered to himself, “At least they're not bleeding.”

He didn't know how long he'd been in Toothbrush Town but he knew how he got there. 

Eric had him distracted... more than usual. His partner was off. Or, more accurately, he was way too 'on'. The man's energetic impropriety levels were off the charts. Even with the bulky cast on his healing ankle, the deceptively thin redhead was amazingly agile and stealthy. It seemed to Aaron that his loving boyfriend was acting like he just couldn't get enough of him. 

When their home first turned into a red light district, Aaron felt guilty about how much he loved having Eric's attention slathered all over him. He got over it, so to speak, and decided to simply enjoy the Hell out of Eric's sailor-on-leave lack of finesse and the constant sexy sneak attacks.

Teasing humor and blatant cuteness were Eric's usual approach to romance and there was definitely still plenty of that in play. Clouds of mush surrounded them like disgustingly adorable cartoon bunnies dancing on the wind. The couple indulged in so much cuddling, hugging and hand holding that they may as well have been the nauseatingly sweet newlyweds whose presence so annoyed the retching neighbors.

Aaron wondered silently if Eric had already drifted off. He could only see the top of his boyfriend's fox-red hair poking out above the fluffy comforter. He didn't see any movement at all under the covers.

He sighed quietly in wistful resignation and loving restraint. It wouldn't be right to wake his resting sweetheart just for some light ravaging, 

“Doesn't matter how tempting he is, uh, _it_ is, yeah.” 

Freudian thoughts carefully stowed away, Aaron gingerly climbed under the bed linens and quietly settled onto his side. At least he could still enjoy the simple pleasure of falling asleep to the sight of his beau's adorable sleep-face with its occasional bout of drooling and the accompanying barely audible kitteny noises. 

He inhaled sharply and froze, muscles flexed and set in a hunter's brace. His face had landed nose to nose with a fully waking Eric. The love of his life stared intensely at him with deep liquid eyes. His long hands folded together under his jaw on the pillow, Eric's pale skin luminescenced in the soft moonlight drifting in through the bedroom windows. 

"Hi," Aaron relaxed and smiled in relief. Hlis storm blue eyes softened tenderly. 

"Hi back." Eric traced a slender finger along his partner's rugged cheek bone. He followed the warm sun weathered skin down the brunette's pronounced jugular vein and onto the edge of his deep chest.

"What's got you so touchy-feely?" Aaron grinned beneath a gently arched eyebrow. Idly draping an arm across Eric's waist, he lovingly rubbed his hand across the well worn t shirt covering his boyfriend's slim but toned back.

Eric stroked Aaron’s cheek lightly with the back of his fingers. Voice as soft as his touch he explained, "Well, I'm horizontal with you. On our own real bed. With no one stupid and nothing decaying lurking nearby.” 

He feather danced the tips of his elegant fingers across Aaron’s broad chest, barely disturbing the surface of the plaid flannel pajama top. His glimmering chocolate eyes sank deeply into Aaron’s loving gaze.

He fondled Aaron’s shirt collar between his pale fingers as he continued, "I know that things were pretty tense there for a while.” 

Trailing his fingers along slowly, he traced the piping of the shirt's button placket down to its hem. The line ended just below Aaron’s belly button and Eric let his hand linger there briefly, strumming weightless fingers against the responsive flesh. Aaron slid his strong hand gently up his partner's tight body and cradled the side of the man's slender face.

“I'm still not going to apologize for the way I feel about staying home tomorrow,” Eric rubbed his cheek against Aaron’s palm. 

He walked his fingers back up Aaron's shirt placket, skipping his long fingers from button to button. The leisurely stroll came to a stop at the very edge of Aaron’s collar between the warm shirt and the even warmer neck.

“...but I'm done with the arguing for now.” 

Eric toyed with the plain tan button anchoring Aaron's open collar. Utterly lost in his boyfriend's smoke bright eyes, his lips formed into an innocent and loving smile. 

“Except for one last thing that I need to say..."

"Yeeess?" Aaron's body tensed and he instinctively withdrew his hand slowly from anywhere near Eric's teeth.

Cupping his boyfriend's marble museum-god jaw with long steady fingers, Eric rubbed his lanky thumb along the curly topped brunette's plump and pouty bottom lip, 

"Saddle up, Cowboy."

Aaron’s eyebrows jumped for the back of his head, his eyes almost tumbling from their sockets.

He hadn't expected a rodeo. Sure, he had some romantically sexy plans for them tonight, his heart was already racing and his blood was actively rerouting, but Eric seemed almost dangerously frisky. He smiled and sincerely hoped that was the case.

“Uh, how's that?” He needed verification.

Eric bared each and every individual tooth in his mouth with a smile wide enough that he risked drying out his gums. He was pleased with the success he achieved in significantly compromising his usually quick-witted boyfriend's rational mind. In compensation for the dulling effect of the mass evacuation of blood from the muscular brunette's brain, Eric spoke to him simply and carefully,

"I love you.” He slipped his hand down his partner's brawny neck.

“Your body is stupid hot.” He added while sliding his hand gently onto Aaron's broad chest.

“I want to slide around all over you. A lot.” Swirling small spirals over the flannel with his finger tips, he sighed dramatically,

“And, I won't have access to you for a while.” His lips twisted into an unwholesome grin.

“So, I need to store up." He cast a goofy beguiling expression at his boyfriend.

"And just what would that entail?" Aaron asked knowing full well that it meant a continuation and escalation of the romantic stalking he had been so enjoying of late.

Eric pushed Aaron flat onto the mattress and climbed over onto him with surprising speed and grace for a thin man with painkillers in his system and a bulky cast on his ankle. Eric stretched out full length on top of his partner's firm body. Folding his lean, tight arms, the pale nymph neatly crossed his forearms on Aaron's hardy chest. 

Cushioning his chin with his stacked wrists, Eric stared at his human pillow with a predatory grin. He neatly elevated his knitting ankle out of the way, bracing the side of his calf against Aaron's taut shin. 

"I am going to take advantage of you sexually, my fine young man.” He mercilessly squirmed against Aaron under the pretense of establishing a firmer seating atop the sculpted body. Aaron gasped as he grabbed Eric's biceps convulsively. His highly overstimulated body arched upward involuntarily and the back of his head buried itself deep into the cool of soft pillows. 

Waiting patiently for Aaron to return from his happy place, Eric continued,

“ _...and_ , you are going to let me because you are too much of a gentleman to deny an injured man his only solace." 

In the most sarcastic cooing voice Aaron had ever heard, the redhead added,

"Because, you see, I have this boo-boo."

“Broken boo-boo,” Aaron croaked. His chest rose and fell to the rhythm of his heaving pants, treating Eric to a low velocity roller coaster ride. 

“Ah, shaddap already.” Eric flattened his hands against the base of Aaron’s throat and slid his slender elegant fingers slowly along his plaid captive's clavicles. Anchoring his hands atop Aaron’s wide shoulders, Eric pulled himself up slowly and firmly along the heat-radiant body beneath him. He stopped his advance at the point where his molten chocolate eyes aligned evenly with Aaron's fog bright blue gray ones. 

At first, Eric's worn cotton t-shirt rubbed tightly across Aaron’s soft flannel top generating almost enough friction to spark a fire. As Eric approached his destination, their shirts bunched up between them. Their partially exposed torsos tightly sealed together in a tingling vacuum of sweat and hormones.

Eric lowered his face and planted a hard aching kiss on Aaron's softly cushioned lips. Grabbing the back of Eric's head, Aaron crushed their mouths together harder. 

They broke for air and Eric pulled back gently. He licked his wide lips tantalizingly and leaned in close. With the tip of his nimble tongue, the pale redhead traced the length of his partner's jaw line up to the hinge beneath the strapping man's left ear. He wetly licked Aaron's earlobe with his tongue. Exhaling gently against the moist skin, Eric nipped at the shivering lobe with his teeth. Aaron slid his hands down Eric's back and roughly kneaded two ample handfuls of his man's taut round buttocks.

Eric moaned heatedly and returned to laying soft whispering kisses from the corner of Aaron's jaw, down his neck, then throat and finally up onto the rugged chin. He hovered over his love's anticipation-parted lips. Aaron's hands grabbed at Eric's tightly muscled shoulders and kneaded them gently. The redhead closed his eyes and rubbed the flushing pale of his cheek against the back of one Aaron's strong hands before returning to his original pursuit.

Slightly parting his lips, Eric leaned closer to Aaron’s partially open mouth for a kiss. At the last moment, he blew warm peppermint breath across Aaron's waiting lips instead. He pulled his face back and away with a charmingly amused and tortuous smile.

Slowly spreading his legs apart he slid his knee onto the bed. Eric set his long hands on Aaron’s chest and pushed against the hard surface. Performing the sexiest of push-ups, Eric lifted himself onto his hands. His flexed forearms displayed sinewed cords of muscle in deep relief against the tight skin. Righting his torso, Eric dexterously straddled Aaron’s waist. He even managed to maintain the positioning of his damaged leg now settled over the hunky woodsman's thigh.

Frustrated, Aaron didn't seem to understand, “What's happe-... guhk”

Eric interrupted him with a deeply passionate kiss and leisurely counted each of his boyfriend's back molars with his tongue.

Aaron’s eyes tried their best to look up into his own brain.

His limber captor's efforts made a biologically obvious impact on Aaron. Although there was very little blood left in his cerebrum, he kept hold of just enough conflicted awareness to protest in selfless concern. 

"Eri-mph," was as far as he got in trying to ask the whirlwind of white and red to not overly exert himself. Once again his attempt at doting caution was thwarted by Eric's prehensile tongue.

Aaron vigilantly kept trying to voice his concern, wedging the odd word into the small gaps between assaults of Eric's active mouth. Trying with all his will not to surrender control to the lurid behavior he continued, “Shouldn't...”

Eric deftly licked Aaron’s flushed lips. 

"...you..." 

The redhead smiled against the skin alongside the bridge of his man's Romanesque nose. He lightly kissed the reflexively closed eyelid over Aaron's mist blue eye.

"Shouldn't you..." 

Eric drew his slightly parted lips across Aaron’s face and kissed the curly hair guarded skin at his brunette plaything's sweaty right temple. The pale tormentor drew the tip of his tongue along the outer curve of his willing victim's ear.

“Shouldn...Jeez!” Aaron’s eyes crossed as the lascivious mind-reader astride him nipped his highly stimulated earlobe again.

“No-hurt-you!” the stubborn brunette managed to caveman out his concern. 

Completely ignoring him, Eric gnashed his teeth at the skin covering the corner of Aaron’s jaw.

The porcelain white maniac parted his full wide lips and lightly licked his way back along Aaron’s jaw bone toward his partner's twitching mouth.

"Ugkm.” Another deep kiss took the distracted brunette by surprise. 

Eric pulled back from the kiss grasping his man's pouty bottom lip in his teeth. Playfully, he shook the plump tender flesh with a toy “grrr” before letting it snap back into place. Eric rolled his lips together savoring the lingering taste before leisurely rolling the very tip of his tongue around the inner barrier of his own slightly open mouth.

Aaron halfheartedly tried to restrain Eric's head but got his hands imprisoned and his fingers sucked on for his trouble. Eventually his hands were relocated onto Eric's flexed thighs and encouraged to misbehave.

Breathing shallow and fast, Eric bumped his cheek roughly across Aaron's smooth face. Aaron tried again to overpower his boyfriend's resolve long enough to get a word or two out, “Babe, you should...”

Eric blew warm moist air lightly across his partner's cheek. Panting irregularly between words he whispered into Aaron’s right ear with a trembling breath,

"Shh.” “ Ankle.” 

Aaron shivered as his boyfriend nibbled the stout neck behind his twitching ear. The vocationally steady and eloquent relief aid emissary lost the ability to use real words. His lexicon devolved into monosyllabic sounds and one meter words as Eric continued tasting him.

“ah, oh.” 

“uhuh.”

“Oaah, yeah, ha ha, right there.”

“That's good”

Aaron suddenly convulsed upward again into the love of his life. He hooked his heavily veined forearms under Eric's arms and slid his hands up across his cinnamon love's back. Pushing down against the visible scapular planes on his partner's back with his rough hands, he pulled the pale and trembling man tightly against his chest. Moaning loudly, Aaron's higher brain functions stumbled and enabled his animal brain to stage a bloodless coup and seize control.

Before he knew it, Aaron’s hands were past the aged and yielding waistband of Eric's warm up pants. He raked his finger tips up and down the smooth cool flesh of the man's voluptuous butt cheeks. His hips moved slowly, grinding bulging cloth against bulging cloth.

Aaron's eyes briefly refocused in a moment of clarity and his critter mind briefly allowed him the use of his vocal chords, “Why in the Hell am I fighting this?" 

He forced himself to pull away from the quivering alabaster flesh under the warm cotton pants. 

"C'mere you,” he grunted before grabbing Eric's head with both hands.

He gave him a wicked look and accused thickly, ”You sadistic little tease.” 

Despite being held firmly by the ears (and some adjacent hair), Eric smiled insanely.

This time Aaron did the tormenting, flattening Eric's full lips with a sweetly aggressive down and dirty kiss as he let his hands wander where they would.

Eventually, Eric broke for air and chuffed against Aaron’s mouth, "Finally!" 

Then it became difficult to talk with Aaron’s tongue in his esophagus. Aaron slid his work honed fingers through the fiery red silk of his man's soft hair. Eric reciprocated enthusiastically, increasing the pressure between their mouths and bodies.

Several heart beats passed before Eric abruptly pushed against the matress with his hands and lifted himself up onto his knees. Fully straddling Aaron once again, he scooted his strikingly robust ass onto his plaid love's hips. He adjusted his seating with exaggerated twists and squirms grinding down against the friendly but turgidly crowding nethers of his curly topped paramour.

With an evil grin he shucked Aaron’s pajamas off of him with a magician's flourish, sending tan plaid flannel wafting across the room to cascade in slow motion onto furniture and floor alike. 

Aaron never knew how Eric did that. A roll here, a spin there and huzzah - naked Aaron. This time, his slender boyfriend didn't even seem to lift from his straddling position. The rugged brunette smiled that such a fragile looking man had the upper body strength to so overwhelm the laws of physics. The crimson blur of activity even kept his bulky ankle cast in check and out of the way the entire time.

 _'Resourceful, talented and determined, he would make a damn good scout,'_ Aaron babbled to himself in surreal irrelevance. _'A seedy basement porn shoot version of a damn good scout.'_

Although Aaron was still pleasantly dazed from the strip trick, Eric managed to recapture his attention by leaning forward and running his long agile fingers through the man's lush downy chest hair. Although his shifted weight and lively hands were mobilized with the sole intention of further tormenting his boyfriend, Eric was hopelessly captivated by the combination of sensations. He lost track of his plans as he slowly sank into the feeling of finger plowing the fine verdant chest hair.

“Oh, no you don't. We're not stopping now,” Aaron warned in a harsh rasp torn from his dry constricted throat. Determined to encourage the lurid activities, Aaron slid his hands under Eric's comfortably worn t shirt. He gently tented the shirt with the back of his hands, lifting it minutely from Eric's body. His limber fingers tapped lightly against the heating flesh, tickling the taut ivory skin. The rough texture of his palms barely skimmed the smooth surface. He continued the spidery advance and textured caress up Eric's back escorting the t shirt along until he had Eric's tight muscles trembling and his flawless skin shivering.

Eric shook like a bathing puppy at the tickling whispers of touch and finally looked away from the soft brown field of mesmerizing chest hair. He grinned unsteadily through a lust tinted haze and dove into Aaron’s steel blue eyes. 

Aaron maintained the teasingly slow removal of Eric's t shirt for as long as he could bear. The sight of pale almost luminous skin being revealed by the tinniest of increments drove him to his breaking point. Only mid way up Eric's back, Aaron grabbed the t shirt roughly and tried stripping it from Eric with desperately aggressive force. Panting heavily, Eric scrambled to help Aaron yank the t shirt up over his spinning red head.

Aaron heavily stroked his work chaffed hands up along the side of Eric's bare torso and up past the flat stomach. He eagerly continued the trip across the densely packed chest and out along Eric's shoulders until finally coming to a rest on the hard pale biceps. He worked his hands around the understated muscles, the kind of brawn that was only visible when in use.

Eric tipped his head back with a breaking moan. Anchoring his lithe hands on Aaron’s broad chest, he applied gentle pressure and once again started to lift himself before Aaron quickly interceded. Taking his pale vixen by the perfect hand hold of tapered waist, the brunette outdoorsman lifted the lighter man a few crucial inches of accommodating and inviting clearance. 

Eric rapidly stripped his warm-up pants down to his knees, grateful for the invention of elastic. Aaron helped him raise each knee individually just enough for Eric to rip each pant leg off hurriedly. The blood fleeing Eric's brain had his body happily tuned in to only very specific nerve endings and thus conveniently negated any pain caused by collateral bumps of his cranky ankle.

Eric stretched forward over Aaron’s muscular body again as the humanitarian aid worker's toes curled. They lay skin on skin for a few heaving breaths, staring deeply at each other in silence. Aaron's body contracted and undulated itself wildly against Eric. His strong hips found home plate of their own accord and thrust up against his partner's friendly crotch. They ground against each other beneath an erotic mantle of heavy and provocative breathing.

Eric slipped back down Aaron's body. Along the way he gave the brunette's solid collar bone a wide lick. He butterflied a soft kiss between the tops of his boyfriend's cozy pecs. Aaron grabbed for the crimson head forcefully and manhandled Eric's hair. 

The shivering redhead drew his tongue slowly down the brunette's sternum in a steady line as his hair was thoroughly mangled. He smiled and sucked at one of Aaron's distended nipples and tweaked the other with his fingers.He took a small breath and flipped the routine keeping the tidal sand colored protuberances both equally wet and resonant.

Aaron disengaged his fingers from Eric's adorably matted hair and rubbed at his love's pale cheeks. The thin redhead ran the tip of his tongue in a staggering uneven path down the mid line of the twitching athletic torso. He glanced up at his boyfriend's flushed wholesome face.

Aaron contracted his stomach muscles in an erotically charged sit-up. He took a gaping and aroused Eric by the shoulders and roughly rubbed the skin of the nape of the pale neck. Eric teasingly pulled away causing Aaron to groan in frustration and drop heavily back onto the bed. Eric grinned at him wolfishly and left a row of small wet circles in his wake as he lightly kissed his way down to the lowest sculpted abdominal muscle beneath him. 

The ride braked abruptly and Aaron raised himself onto his elbows to look at his redhead quizzically between deep breaths. Eric's cheek lay softly on Aaron’s stomach. His eyes were closely focused on the sight of his pale hand stroking the tight flesh under an intricately wrought infinity loop tattooed on Aaron’s waist. Turning slightly onto his side he touched the matching ink on his own waist with the same hand and looked up at Aaron with incandescent joy. 

Aaron watched with love draped eyes. He shifted his weight to one elbow and reached a sun kissed hand toward Eric. The copper dream reached his pale hand up to meet his beloved boyfriend half way. The couple interlaced their fingers and stared into each others face silently. 

Eric suddenly grinned malevolently and lifted his head to continue the trail of tiny light kisses in a wavering circle around Aaron’s umbilicus. He worked a line of hot wet lip prints into the intimate space where torso ended and legs diverged. 

With the side of a solitary elegant finger he leaned the blood engorging column of flesh he encountered gently out of his way. Smiling evilly up at Aaron over the man's twitching well muscled torso, he watched his boyfriend arch his back and dig his head back into the yielding pillows. Eric worked his teeth against the skin at the join of thigh to body. He gently popped Aaron’s testicles into his wide steaming mouth and sucked lightly in a constant rhythm. 

Aaron moaned. Eyelids at half mast, his eyeballs crossed and retreated upward. Grasping at Eric, he groped around for a solid hand hold. Once again he opted to invade the hair on either side of Eric's head like something from a WWII news reel about Normandy. He roughly dragged his fingers manically through the shining red field before tugging forcefully on both hardy handfuls of Eric's hair. The nubile redhead took that as his cue.

Holding a long hand around the base of the towering shaft, he cupped the other hand around the testicles rolling them with his fingers ever so carefully. Slowly he parted his reddened lips and snaked out his agile tongue. He fully coated the head of Aaron’s manhood with saliva laid down in long wet passes of his indefatigable and deft oral projection. 

Humming nonsensically, he enveloped the jumping head with his scorching mouth. He sucked his cheeks inward tightly around the turgid protuberance. Pressure flushed lips slid down the significantly expanded circumference of the dancing shaft by agonizingly small increments. From there, the festivities continued and filled the air with a chorus of deep grunts and the scent of sweaty love.

Several hours of vigorous and inventive carnality later, Eric snapped awake gasping frantically. He found no life giving air, only the musk of exhausted man flesh. He caught the barest hint of sun, wind and autumnal forest on that skin as his eyesight began to spot and darken. Aaron's heavily muscular arm was in a dead drop over Eric's bluish face. 

His beloved was half lying on the, until recently, happily sleeping and breathing Eric. Even through the descent of failing consciousness, Eric heard Aaron snuffling air quietly in what was usually an adorable acknowledgement of full REM sleep. Eric strained his shoulders heaving the considerable dead weight off his now purpling face as unobtrusively as he could. He lightly repositioned Aaron's arm across his pale bare torso and sucked air in deep open mouthed gasps as quietly as he could. 

The more urgent gasps subsided, Eric lay his hand on his nude knight's rugged forearm and stroked it carefully. Still catching his breath quietly, he lightly rested his cheek on top of the shorn tea brown curls on Aaron's head.

Eric idly nuzzled his cheek against the comforting springy hair. Hovering his face over Aaron's head, Eric looked down at the back of his love's head with sad tear-cresting eyes. 

Eric was off the recruiting roster, permanently. Unwillingly. Neither of them liked wasting their time alone together arguing, but they couldn't seem to get past the redhead's insistence that he would be going back out there with Aaron after the ankle knit back together.

So they did argue. Bitterly and constantly for a solid two days. The quarreling kept them apart during Aaron’s short break from the certainty of returning to the pursuit of the living as recruits for the town. One day, Eric put a stop to the fighting by acquiescing to Aaron's fear driven decision. He would stay home and let his brunette paladin believe the argument was over. Eric wanted to remove himself as a distraction from his stalwart boyfriend's mind. He knew that was the only way the deeply caring soul could focus fully on the job during his next dangerous trip outside the town compound. 

In reality, Eric had only postponed the airing of that bit of ugliness until the moot point could matter. Once Eric's ankle was reset to factory default status again, he would approach the cautious Aaron and together they would unleash the full fury of the knock down drag out discussion that was to settle this point of contention between them. Thankfully, that day wouldn't be for several more months down the road, and Eric was good at waiting. 

He knew that Aaron didn't want to leave him all alone in Pax Alexandria, but he had a job to do, one they both believed in and that let them stay together under a real roof. Homes were rented in trade in this town. Everyone had to contribute to the whole. Recruiting was Aaron’s best fit and what he was uniquely qualified to do. Not only was he trained in survival and diplomacy, he was also very good and highly experienced at them as well.

Aaron twitched in his sleep and blindly rummaged around with his knuckled hand looking for Eric's heat signature. Eric gently grasped the frantically searching hand and guided it away from his face and onto his chest, over his heart. He wrapped his fingers around the strong hand and held it firmly until Aaron's breathing slowed and the brunette descended back into peaceful sleep. Satisfied that Aaron was back in the land of nod, Eric gently lifted the sheet higher over his boyfriend's shoulders keeping him warm, calm and reassured.

He didn't want to wake him but was overcome with the need to feel him against his lips. He lightly placed a cautious kiss on top of Aaron’s brown fleecy head. His cheek delicately balanced on the springy hair, Eric looked out the window. The sun was about to come up. The faint purples and pinks of the predawn light illuminated Aaron's body as it rose and fell in even and steady breaths. Eric shuddered and inhaled softly as he watched Aaron glow in the pastel light like a perfectly cast Oberon in Shakespeare's _A Midsummer's Night Dream._

It was obvious to anyone that even glanced their way that Eric didn't want Aaron going out in the world looking for survivors without him. What wasn't so noticeable, were the reasons beyond the obvious. Of course, he didn't want to lose Aaron. He dreaded learning that the man got himself killed in the woods somewhere. Yes, he knew he could wind up all alone with a broken heart trying to give a damn about living. 

Those were reason enough to be worried and needy, but what Eric feared most is that he wouldn't be there to care for his partner if he got hurt. He wouldn't be able to say goodbye to the love of his life should he leave this world. Even worse than those haunting scenarios was that he would know that Aaron died alone. 

Tears overflowed Eric's foal like eyes against his will. He hated crying. It made him feel exposed and vulnerable and it brought him way too much attention. This current fit embarrassed him and he turned his face into the cushion of Aaron's soft brown curls. He hoped that the warmth would stop the tears, or at least the texture absorb them quickly. He was so very wrong. The scent of Aaron's steamy musk and the sound of the pulse of his beating heart traveling through his veins made things much worse. 

Suddenly, Eric snorted involuntarily. His body betrayed him in its eagerness to clear his tear and snot congested sinuses for the chance of more oxygen. He froze in place, hoping that the noise wasn't as loud as it sounded to his ears. He heard a stuttering yawn emerge from under his stirring boyfriend. 

The nimble brunette suddenly jacked himself up onto his hands and rapidly snapped his body from the waist toward the source of the strange sound. Relieved to find it was Eric, he rolled over and sighed. Shoving his pillow under his shoulders he lay his head back against the headboard, rubbing at his eyes with the heels of his hands.

Eric panicked, there wasn't enough time to compose himself or dry his face. He was mortified that Aaron would see him like this. The only thing more humiliating than crying was getting caught crying by Aaron. He wasn't about to burden him with concern over his mental or emotional state. Especially not on the eve of a run with new and unfamiliar backup. 

Aaron yawned luxuriously as Eric ducked his head beneath the burly chin, burying his face against his man's bare chest. He didn't take into account that his face was still wet enough to give him away. 

Still working the last bit of sleep from an eye, Aaron wrapped his free arm around Eric's shoulders. He hugged his pale love tightly against his body. Settling his fleecy brown head back with another mighty yawn, he admired the shimmering play of light on the wonderfully disheveled fox-red hair that shot out in 15 different directions. Craning his neck toward Eric, Aaron softly kissed the top of the cinnamon chaos on his guy's head.

He forced himself not to ask about the tears burning his skin with Eric's pain. He knew how embarrassed and vulnerable Eric was about that simply human emotional response. Aaron found it adorable that his pale sweetheart thought he could keep these kinds of things from him. But, it was also heartbreaking that the dear man thought it necessary to hide that aspect of himself for the sake of Aaron’s feelings. 

It would be hard enough driving away with a worried and fearful Eric in the rear-view mirror. He wasn't about to add embarrassment and shame into the mix of fuel feeding the redhead's burning conflagration of pain. Not on the eve of leaving him behind on a run.

Aaron flexed his arm around Eric's hard thin shoulders crushing him into the reassuring warmth of their closely gathered nude bodies. He gently rocked Eric by those shoulders and whispered into his hair, “Hey.”

“Yeah?” Eric said to Aaron's furry pec. 

The hardy brunette took Eric's chin in a roughened outdoorsman's hand and gently raised the long pale face. Aaron captured his partner's gaze and grinned, 

“I think you've got some room left in that tank.” Eric managed a sad little smile. 

“Let's give it a top off. What d'ya say?” He lightly brushed his scalding mouth against Eric's gentle grin before softly licking the man's wide pale lips with impure affection.

Eric rolled his lips and swiped them with his tongue tasting warm salty lust. “Mmm,” he hummed in approval and donned a pallid smile.

He chuckled and wiped away snot and dried tear marks with his hands, 

“So _this_? This is a look that gets you hot?”

“You're naked. Everything gets me hot,” Aaron kissed him shamelessly. Giving the pronounced cheekbone a gentle nip he asked,

“You still up to taking my weight?”

Brightening into his old self, Eric blinked coquettishly, “The answer to that is always _'yes'._ ” 

Aaron smiled lewdly and turned onto his knees. Practically growling, he grabbed Eric roughly by the hips and dragged him flat onto the bed. The angel faced idealist spread his man's tightly muscled thighs apart with his hands like opening a velvet curtain in a bordello. 

Climbing between the insanely giggling Eric's thighs, Aaron gently slid a hand under the slightly knobby knee of his captive vixens damaged leg and carefully placed the sinewed calf onto his broad shoulder. Running his hands along the elevated lap he gave the inside of Eric's knee a smacking kiss. 

Eric stretched his neck backward and dug his head into the disordered pillows. He rode out the surge of pleasure and brought his head up out of the swaddling down to look up at Aaron. His eyes thick with want, Eric panted erratically as Aaron knee-walked closer to his body. Then together, they topped off Eric's storage tank.

**Author's Note:**

> Never written sex before. Technically, still haven't. Left a few fairly important things to the imagination.
> 
> Foreplay heavy because that's what messes with my head.  
> Modifier heavy because I crave complete control of your reading experience, & the world for that matter. Mwahaha.  
> Graphic light because I wouldn't call myself inhibited, but I am rather shy about lust & stuff.


End file.
